The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engine turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. Lockheed based it on the L-188 Electra commercial airliner. The aircraft is easily distinguished from the Electra by its distinctive tail stinger or "MAD Boom", used for the magnetic detection of submarines.

Designed as a replacement for the P2V Neptune Anti-Submarine aircraft, the P-3 Orion was first flown in November, 1959. The aircraft is based on the Electra turboprop airliner, with the addition of a sensitive Magnetic Anomoly Detector, located far from airframe interference in a distinctive tail boom "stinger". An internal bomb bay can house torpedoes and even nuclear weapons while anti-ship missiles or bombs can be carried on underwing pylons. The P-3's original mission was to track Soviet submarines during the cold war, however it is now in service with numerous countries including Australia, Canada, Germany and Japan, to name but a few.